Geek & Sundry: 2 Years of Geekiness, Friendship, and Community

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Two years is a long time in the land of streaming and New Media for Geek & Sundry. There have been many ups and downs (but mostly ups) and recently a whole new behind-the-scenes teams has taken over and shown the same love and care for the channel as the old team, which means exciting things for the new year.

Naturally, in celebration of this milestone, I asked the current Twitch hosts what their favorite memories are of the channel and what they’re looking forward to and the responses were overwhelmingly heartwarming (seriously, I was tearing up and that’s hard to make happen). Some of them have been around for almost all of it and some of them are newer but, because of how welcoming Team Hooman is, they still have incredible things to share. Here are some of the memories from some of our favorite people.

Robot Teammate & The Accidental Party

Robot Teammate was first asked to perform for a Lupus Charity stream with Geek & Sundry and eventually they got their own show on Mondays and now they’ve become a wonderful addition to Gather Your Party every Friday.

Kat Primeau said that some of their favorite moments stem from the incredible warmth and generosity of the channel and community as a whole: “Our first time at G&S, we were invited to perform on a charity stream raising money for Lupus research. It was incredible to connect with an audience who encourages our musical wackiness AND wants to contribute to great causes. Oh, the hoomanity! We were hooked. A few years later, we have the extreme joy of being weekly hosts on G&S, where we’ve made friends from Israel, UK, and all around the world who surprise and delight us. Just last week, we raised $675 on the stream for a lesser-known form of dementia that my dad has called FTD. I could’ve cried the whole stream, the compassion and generosity was overwhelming, but that’s just what G&S has built – an incredible community of creators and audience members who wear their hearts on their sleeves and actively support each other in real life and online!”

Chris Bramante of Robot Teammate also added one of his favorite memories from Comic-Con while partying with Geek & Sundry and how he just loved the environment and being surrounded by people who weren’t ashamed to show their geekiness loud and proud: “The Geek & Sundry Lounge at Comic-Con changed achievable joy levels for SDCC evenings. Seared forever into the contours of my memory is the divine image of a sea of people all raising their hands in the shape of the Triforce while a remix of Legend of Zelda blared on the speakers above.”

Both Chris and Robot Teammate are looking forward to the Fridays to come at Gather Your Party with Erika Ishii and Stefanie Woodburn and, as Chris put it “all the gather your partiers.” Chris also looks forward to all that Ivan Van Norman and friends have in store for International Tabletop Day (which is April 29th, by the way).

Minhdzuy Khorami

Minhdzuy getting his Sonic on.

Minhdzuy has been a host at Geek & Sundry for a while now and is known for his awesome musical comedy skills and just being pretty frickin awesome. His favorite memory also comes from his first time on the channel and how he got to eat free food and play games for hours: “Once during an early Gather Your Party, I showed up to borrow a board game from Becca and then saw free food, started eating it, and then Zac pulled me on stream and I accidentally played Munchkin on stream for like 2 hours. That’s also when I met Ivan, Sarah Rodriguez, and Holland!”

I know most of the crew may not see this article but they’ve been forewarned that Minhdzuy has dastardly plans that he looks forward to: “All those trap doors I’m going to dig out underneath the stage.” I know what I’m looking out for next time I’m on set!

Scott Rubin

Scott Rubin (Captain America) dances for subscribers and joy.

Scott Rubin runs the incredibly awesome show about battling with buildable, non-licensed bricks called Brick Battles. It’s really fun and it allows him to build stuff and break it all in one go. But his favorite memories are from both Brick Battles and Group Hug: “I look back very fondly on all of the great games we’ve played on both Group Hug and Brick Battles, and all of the amazing guests we’ve welcomed from our friends Josephine, Whitney, and Minhdzuy to featured players like Jennifer Hale, Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt, and frequent collaborator TV’s Scott Porter. Meanwhile, Brick Battles continues with some new hosts and fresh energy with lots of new features and fun on the horizon!”

Amy Vorpahl

Amy Vorpahl is the loving and wonderful human being who can be seen on Foreververse and now, Mothership. She is one of the sweetest people who anyone could have the pleasure to meet and has made many friends within Geek & Sundry and Nerdist as a whole.

Her favorite memory is from Foreververse and how she met one of her best friends: “Geek & Sundry’s ForeverVerse is the reason I have my best friend, Jason Charles Miller. We first met playing RPG’s, and quickly learned that we were both singer/songwriters. It was a short jump to co-writing songs, and an even shorter jump to being friends! He’s so generous and thoughtful, and he’s one of the few people who makes working or hanging out feel like the same thing. I think it’s a good metaphor of what G&S represents: making friends and building community through games, fun, and nice people.”

I’m not crying! You’re crying! It’s just raining on my face… a lot.

Jason Charles Miller

Jason Charles Miller brings Christmas cheer to all.

Much like Amy, Jason Charles Miller has become one of the best people I know at Geek & Sundry. He always has such a great attitude and friendly spirit that it’s hard not to want to be his friend. His kindness and warmth are infectious and he really brings something special to the hosts of Geek & Sundry.

One of his favorite memories is also from Gather Your Party: “A great memory of mine was the very first time I appeared on the stream. It was on Gather Your Party and I was the musical guest. After every song, I was too nervous to look at the chat window because dealing with the internet for as long as I have, I figured the comments would all be negative. How wrong I was! I was amazed at how supportive the G&S Twitch community was to me and how polite they all were to each other. I’m never afraid to look at the chat window anymore! There’s a great group of people here, in person and online!”

Alright, I am crying! I’m just in a glass case of emotion.

Erika Ishii

Erika has been around forever with the channel. She hosts various shows and has helped the channel grow in tremendous ways. I know I keep complimenting everyone here but it’s true, she just has such a kind spirit. I feel incredibly lucky to know her and anyone who ever has a chance to meet her will feel the exact same. There is such a genuine and welcoming attitude that she always carries about her. She has many memories of her time at Geek & Sundry but what makes her smile is: “…when I subscribed to the channel while I was on camera for Gather Your Party, danced to the music for my sub, and everyone in chat spammed (at the time) the brand new Hype emote with my face. I felt like I had found my family and was home. I’m looking forward to many more years of hype!”

We’re looking forward to many more years of hype with you, Erika!

Stefanie Woodburn

Left to Right: Gina Devivo, Stefanie Woodburn, & Amy Dallen.

Last but certainly not least is the woman who sent me three amazing memories, Stefanie Woodburn. Stefanie is seriously incredible, strong, and very much The Chosen One. She fights for the voices of everyone at the channel and stands her ground in the face of, well anything. She’s talented, smart, warm, and incredibly friendly. There are so many shows and things that would not be possible without her or any of the people on this list. I am so lucky to have the pleasure to host with her on AXYB and her first favorite memory is from the time of 48 hour charity stream for Lupus: “Ending the 48 hour charity stream, having raised $160K for the Lupus Foundation, amped up on energy drinks and ice cream, diving right into filming the “introducing Stef” host clip – and realizing that this was the start of a beautiful new era. A new community. A new type of awesome, building connection and community all over the globe.”

That’s not all, she’s also on the show Mines N Crafts where she, Amy Dallen, and Gina Devivo all build adorable do-it-yourself crafts: “Reading our sweet vows to Jess Marzipan for our 6 month anniversary during our surprise marriage (*disclaimer not a real marriage).” This one even came with an awesome fan-made YouTube Clip:

And then finally, there was a sad moment when Gather Your Party went on hiatus but through love, magic, hard work, and the power of community you got to make Stef’s last favorite moment: “How happy I was when our Friday night show GATHER YOUR PARTY came back – what else were we gonna do Friday nights?”

And we look forward to many many more Gather Your Party episodes, Stef.

Honestly, I started out as a fan of The Guild and a few of the Twitch shows (Gather Your Party included) and I never dreamed that I would be here writing an article about their two year anniversary, let alone being a host on AXYB. I cannot thank everyone on this list and the crew at Geek & Sundry enough for being so wonderful and welcoming to me and everyone. Now, there’s so much to look forward to! Let’s keep moving forward, working hard, and let’s have another great year at Geek & Sundry!

Make sure to catch the big celebration starting THIS FRIDAY (3/10) on Twitch.tv/geekandsundry. Starting with Gather Your Party & Robot Teammate at 7PM, for 25-hours straight there will be games to be played, stories to be told, and more than a few surprises for fans who have been been with us for two years or just last week. We will be raising money for 826LA; a nonprofit organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to ensure the success of its network of seven writing and tutoring centers.

What are your favorite Geek & Sundry memories? What are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!